EV­ERY­THING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BIGGEN­DEN SHOW

Over­whelm­ing sup­port for 2015 an­nual Biggen­den show

IT’S ALL sys­tems go and the Biggen­den Show So­ci­ety if look­ing for­ward to the sup­port of its com­mu­nity for a bumper show on May 16-17.

So­ci­ety pres­i­dent Bill Wil­son said in the past 12 months, the Bur­nett re­gion had ex­pe­ri­enced prob­a­bly its worst drought.

“With the change in the weather the prime cat­tle sec­tion will re­turn to this year’s pro­gram while the campdraft will be part of the Stock­man’s chal­lenge.

“Once again the sup­port of our lo­cal busi­ness com­mu­nity, spon­sors and the wide com­mu­nity has been over­whelm­ing.

“Our hard-work­ing com­mit­tee, ste­wards and all vol­un­teers, in­clud­ing gate keep­ers, should be con­grat­u­lated and thanked for their con­tri­bu­tion to en­able our great show to be staged each year.”

Mr Wil­son made spe­cial men­tion of trea­surer Alison Chelling­worth who has stepped up and taken on the sec­re­tary role with the as­sis­tance of Nancy Brady.

He said the com­mit­tee was with­out a sec­re­tary fol­low­ing its an­nual meet­ing and since then no one was forth­com­ing.

“Like many other or­gan­i­sa­tions, we ur­gently need vol­un­teers to come for­ward not just on show day but right through the year,” he said.

The so­ci­ety has un­der­taken a num­ber of main­te­nance jobs.

Mr Wil­son said heaps of new pens had been built in the poul­try pav­il­ion.

The show gets un­der­way on the Satur­day morn­ing at 8am with the campdraft sec­tion of the Stock­man’s chal­lenge fol­lowed at 9am by the poul­try and prime cat­tle judg­ing and the open­ing of the show, fol­low­ing the pav­il­ion judg­ing.

Mr Wil­son said num­bers were look­ing good for the prime cat­tle af­ter it had been can­celled for the first time last year.

Satur­day’s pro­gram also in­cludes pony club events, beaut ute judg­ing and tug of war, spon­sored by Cr Lofty Wendt. Mr Wil­son said there was an abun­dance of en­ter­tain­ment with chain­saw sculp­tor BJ Gen­try carv­ing up a log to be auc­tioned on the Satur­day night.

“The rides and slides will be in sideshow al­ley for the younger gen­er­a­tion.

Ty­rone O’Reilly will be a re­turn ap­pear­ance while Steve Lon­don will be wan­der­ing the grounds with his pup­pets.

Biggen­den Miss Show­girl 2014 Taliah Faint will of­fi­cially open the show be­fore the popular fire­works light up the night sky and the Matthew Barker Trio en­ter­tain the crowds late into the night.

Sun­day starts early with the gates open­ing at 6am for a full day’s pro­gram of horse events in the main ring and the heavy horses while the dog show and stud cat­tle get un­der­way at 9am.

Mr Wil­son said dog num­bers were on a par to pre­vi­ous years but the stud cat­tle was un­known.

“With Beef Week this week we of­ten suf­fer but will just have to wait and see what hap­pens,” he said.

A crowd pleaser will be watch­ing the ax­e­man make the chips fly in the wood­chop area.

The grand pa­rade will get un­der­way at 1.30pm.

WE'RE BACK: The Houtin broth­ers, Gerry, Iain and John en­joy their camel ride at last year’s show.